Brown, R., Mawson, S., Rowe, A. and Mason, C. (2018) ‘Working the crowd: Improvisational entrepreneurship and equity crowdfunding in nascent entrepreneurial ventures’. International Small Business Journal, 36, 2: 169-193.

This article considers the role of networks within the crowdfunding process, including the role that strong and weak network ties play at differet points during a crowdfunding campaign. It identifies that, for many companies, crowdfunding offers a number of intangible benefits in addition to financing.

Younkin, P. and Kashkooli, K. (2017) ‘What problems does crowdfunding solve?’ California Management Review, 58, 2: 20–43.

This article reviews the types of platform and how should expand. It identifies the range of problems crowdfunding addresses and their performance to date. Crowdfunding succeeds in raising money within and across networks, but efforts to use crowdfunding to educate or to generate recurring revenue are less successful.

Mason, C., Botelho, T., & Zygmunt, J. (2017). ‘Why business angels reject investment opportunities: Is it personal?’ International Small Business Journal, 35, 5, 519–534.

This article focuses on business angels’ decision-making processes and investment criteria when they reject most opportunities. It uses the concept of ‘communities-of-practice’ as an explanation.

McGuinness, G. and Hogan, T. (2014) ‘Bank credit and trade credit: evidence from SMEs over the financial crisis’. International Small Business Journal, 34, 4: 412–45.

This article explores the extent to which trade credit acted as a substitute for bank finance in small and medium-sized enterprises, in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008. It demonstrates that the reduction in the supply of funds to SMEs was compounded by the contraction of net trade credit within the sector.

Jiang, P., Cai, C.X., Keasey, K., Wright, M. and Zhang, Q. (2014) ‘The role of venture capitalists in small and medium-sized enterprise initial public offerings: evidence from China’. International Small Business Journal, 32, 6: 619–43.

This article examines the role of venture capitalists in public firms listed on the Small and Medium Enterprise Board and the Growth Enterprise Board in China. The grandstanding motive is documented for younger VCs which offer higher levels of initial underpricing to enhance their positions in the industry, but no evidence is found to support grandstanding by foreign VCs.